Self limiting beliefs are a hot topic in 2019. In our personal and our professional lives, these beliefs can frame how we view ourselves, how we think people view us, how we think and ultimately how we behave. These beliefs can be both conscious and unconscious, and through a process of introspection and self awareness we can understand ourselves better and make positive changes. This blog post explores self limiting beliefs, their effects on us, and how we can help you overcome these.

In a nutshell, self limiting beliefs are beliefs you have about yourself, or about the world, that hold you back in some way. By holding them, we may define ourselves a certain way, or we may do, or not do, something based on these erroneous beliefs. This ends up being detrimental to us both personally and professionally. Brightstone offer a range of business coaching services to help you overcome these beliefs and achieve your personal and professional goals.

Self limiting beliefs can include some of the following:

“I can’t/I’m not experienced enough/I don’t have the skillset” – these are one of the most common self limiting beliefs in a professional setting and they may be holding you back from achieving your potential. You may not go for a job opening that exists, you may not put yourself forward to lead a group project, or you may not seize on a business opportunity.

“I’m not X, I’m Y” – by defining yourself and your place in the world along certain lines you may be holding yourself back. As a manager with a background in computer programming, you may feel that you’re not in a position to contribute to the company’s marketing strategy. By seeing yourself as only one thing you’re missing the opportunity to learn, and also the opportunity to pass on your ideas.

“I/We mustn’t/don’t do that” – most of us have our views of the world shaped by our upbringing and from our earliest moments until the present day. Many organisations develop the same set of habits and rules over time. For many of us these ‘norms’ end up controlling what we do and don’t do. Professionally, these can stop us pushing boundaries, challenging the status quo, or developing new products or services.

Beliefs about other people and/or the world – these can be equally as damaging as beliefs about ourselves. We may feel in a business that other staff or departments are ultimately out for themselves and develop a mistrust. Or perhaps we may think that the general public will never want to buy our product. Finally, we may believe that all successful people are ruthless and in order to be successful ourselves we have to replicate that, to the detriment of personal and professional relationships.

Somebody else will do this better – by always believing that somebody else can do it better than us, we don’t bother trying. We may never learn that we can do something just as well simply because we never try.

Consciously or subconsciously, people tend to look for evidence of things that support their already-held beliefs. This confirmation bias often leads to self fulfilling prophecies, which in turn limit us further. For example, somebody who doesn’t believe they have what it takes to be a manager may focus on the one time they didn’t succeed, rather than the many times they did and may not even have realised. This may lead them to repeat mistakes or not capitalise on opportunities that may present themselves for fear of failing again.

It can be hard to address self limiting beliefs as in a lot of cases, we’re not even aware of them. Likewise, sometimes these beliefs can have benefits; identifying and being aware of one’s own weaknesses or inexperience can prevent us from doing things that would seriously jeopardise our careers or our organisations. After all, if you’re a junior manager in a multinational corporation of thousands of people, and somebody offered you the job of CEO, even if you want it, it would be a legitimate belief to feel that you may not be able to do the job.

One of the best ways to address your self limiting beliefs is to engage in some honest introspection to determine where your views about yourself and others are correct, and where they’re not. With a greater understanding you’ll be able to question your self limiting beliefs and whether or not they are valid.

Working with experts in business coaching like Brightstone will allow you to analyse your own performance and outlook to see which areas you can focus on. You’ll then be able to put plans in place to address them and make positive progress.

Meet them head on – while not for everyone, some people benefit from the ‘sink or swim’ method. For example, if you’re nervous about presenting in a business setting, start making a conscious effort to engage with groups of people. Even if you start small and build up, you’ll find that your confidence grow and assumptions you once held that you couldn’t do it will disappear.

Learning from others – one of the best ways to make progress is to learn and take advice from others. Many people will have been in your position before and even just seeing first hand how they have got over it can inspire you to do the same. Brightstone’s expert business coaches have years’ of experience of helping people to improve.

Set yourself goals with achievable objectives – set yourself a goal of something you’d like to achieve in a given timescale, and then determine a set of objectives that will help you reach your ultimate goal. Define how you’re going to overcome any individual challenges and set some deadlines so you can track your progress. If for any reason you don’t achieve them all, analyse why and determine how you can do so in the future. The main way that most people learn is from mistakes, so don’t get disheartened.

To find out about our bespoke business coaching services, contact us today.